Profitable, Resilient and Sustainable Supply Chains

在当今的商业世界中成功竞争对加拿大公司构成了重大挑战。客户的需求和偏好更加多样化，对产品性能、价格和客户服务的要求也更加苛刻。他们还更加关注产品的来源，以及它们是否来自社会和环境可接受的做法。与此同时，加拿大公司经营的供应链变得更加相互关联和全球化。因此，它们也变得更加脆弱，潜在的故障点更多，吸收延误和中断的误差幅度更小。这些漫长的供应链缺乏可见性，尤其是对较低层次的供应链，这使得运营控制效率较低。 在这个充满风险的全球环境中，供需匹配尤其复杂。 我们的研究计划的最终目标是在这种背景下提高加拿大公司的盈利能力，弹性和可持续性。为此，我们提出了一个精心设计的两阶段研究计划，通过更多地关注其突出来源，重新审视这些风险，并制定综合战略，为客户和公司创造持续价值。我们计划的第一阶段将包括两个主要主题，重点是需求和供应风险。主题I将研究需求方风险，特别是支配消费者和消费者选择过程的不确定性（例如，关于价格、产品性能、附加价值）。通过新颖的或有销售安排（例如，价格匹配，退款保证）。我们将制定一个框架，系统地对这些风险进行分类，并确定缓解这些风险的应急安排。然后，我们将设计模型，以优化公司利润在这种销售策略，而在同一时间注意到经营决策，如库存水平。 主题二，我们将审查供应方风险，特别是供应链中不太明显的第二或较低层次（次级）产生的不确定性。供应中断风险和与不遵守环境和社会标准有关的风险都将在这一主题下加以考虑。我们将开发分析模型来探索这些风险的影响，并设计适当的控制机制来减轻不利影响。在该计划的第二阶段，我们将利用第一阶段产生的理论成果和实践见解，为现实规模的供应链构建决策支持系统。我们打算利用真实的数据构建大规模模型并开发启发式求解方法。这一决策支持工具将有助于制定与采购、库存放置和需求优化相关的战略和战术决策。 我们相信我们的跨职能研究计划调查及时和实际相关的问题，并有可能作出重大贡献的学术文献。此外，通过考虑风险和成本之间的权衡，我们的综合模型将有助于制定战略，以提高加拿大公司的弹性，可持续性和盈利能力。

Competing successfully in today's business world poses significant challenges to Canadian firms. Customers are more diverse in terms of their needs and preferences, and they are more demanding in terms of product performance, price and customer service. They also pay more attention to where the products come from and whether they are sourced from socially and environmentally acceptable practices. At the same time, the supply chains Canadian firms operate have become more interconnected and global. Therefore, they have also become more vulnerable with more potential points of failure and with less margin of error for absorbing delays and disruptions. These long supply chains lack visibility, especially into the lower tiers, which render operational control less effective. Matching demand and supply in this risk ridden global environment is particularly intricate. The ultimate objective of our research program is to improve the profitability, resilience and sustainability of Canadian firms against this backdrop. To this end, we propose a carefully crafted, two-stage research program that takes a fresh look into these risks by dwelling more on their prominent sources, and develops integrated strategies to create sustained value to the customer and to the firm. The first stage of our program will consist of two major themes focusing on demand and supply risks. Theme I will examine demand side risks, in particular the uncertainties that govern the consumer and the consumer choice process (e.g., about prices, product performance, value attached). It is possible to provide consumers some protection against these risks via novel contingent selling arrangements (e.g., price match, money-back guarantee). We will develop a framework to systematically categorize these risks and identify contingent arrangements to mitigate them. We will then design models to optimize firm profits under such selling strategies, while at the same time paying attention to operational decisions such as inventory levels. Theme II, we will examine supply-side risks, in particular the uncertainties emanating from less visible, second or lower tiers (sub-tiers) of the supply chain. Both supply disruption risks and risks related to non-compliance with environmental and social standards will be considered under this theme. We will develop analytical models to explore the impact these risks have and design appropriate control mechanisms to moderate the detrimental effects. During the second stage of the program, we will utilize the theoretical results and practical insights generated from the first stage in order to build a decision-support system for realistic-sized supply chains. We intend to construct large-scale models and develop heuristic solution methods utilizing real data. This decision-support tool will assist making strategic and tactical decisions related to sourcing, inventory placement, and demand optimization. We believe our cross-functional research program investigates timely and practically relevant issues, and has the potential to make significant contributions to the scholarly literature. Furthermore, by taking into account the trade-offs between risks and costs, our integrated models will help to develop strategies to improve the resilience, sustainability and profitability of Canadian firms.